Sausville said he only learned a week ago that the ethics panel was seeking to issue its report, and that he was unaware until Monday that Sickels was the target of the complaint.

"We didn't even know what the report said," Sausville said. "We take great pride in really having open government and providing avenues for our committees to do their work. ... We want them to be independent and report their findings to us."

The panel's report on Sickels included a timeline that showed the report was not forwarded to the ethics committee until three weeks after it was delivered to Christine M. Carsky, a Saratoga Springs attorney who has advised the seven-member committee.

Carsky on Wednesday said that she forwarded by email a copy of the complaint to the town attorney, Thomas W. Peterson, after she received it on Sept. 12. But Carsky this week said that after reviewing her email exchanges with Peterson that she believes there was confusion about who's job it was to forward the complaint to the panel.

The committee did not get the complaint until Oct. 4, after Lynda Bablin, the town tax collector who filed the allegations, inquired why the panel had not received it.

Carsky said her email to Peterson only said "FYI" and that he responded: "Thanks for the heads up."

"It may have been that he thought I was going to deliver it," Carsky said. She added the committee's report also erroneously indicated she had sent a hard-copy version of the complaint to Peterson via regular mail on Sept. 12. She said she didn't mail him a copy.

However, on Oct. 3, Carsky sent an email to Bablin assuring her that copies of the complaint had been forwarded to the town attorney by electronic and regular mail.

Carsky's email was in response to Bablin's inquiry asking why the committee hadn't received it.

"I absolutely forwarded it on to Mr. Peterson by email and regular mail, but I also advised that you could forward it directly to him or to the town supervisor," Carsky wrote, according to a copy of the email sent to Bablin.

Peterson said he received the initial email from Carsky, but it did not come with the complaint attached.

"I did not receive the complaint until (Oct. 4) ... and then transmitted it via email to the chair of the Ethics Committee that same day," Peterson said. "One thing is certain, the Town Board was not part of this exchange, and no one made any request for submission of the complaint to be delayed."

Still, the committee's report also raised questions about why their request to have the matter on the agenda of last Monday's Town Board meeting was delayed.

The committee said they were initially given a time-slot to appear at the meeting but then told by Peterson that they could present their findings at the Nov. 6 meeting — a day after the general election.

"The committee believes the findings are of sufficient importance to be made publicly available prior to Election Day ... and, further, that not making reasonable efforts to make our findings available to voters prior to Election Day would be a violation of the principles of the Code of Ethics itself," the report states.

Sickels, a Republican, is being challenged for the clerk's job by Amanda Sovern, a Democrat.

Despite being taken off Monday's agenda, the committee presented its findings to the board during a public comment session.

They did so without identifying Sickels by name.

However, the full report was then made public by Bablin, who was given a copy.

Bablin, a banking underwriter and the town's receiver of taxes, accused Sickels of directing a town employee, Jennifer Lanahan, to edit and retype Malta Republican Committee minutes while she was working in the town clerk's office and being paid by the town. Bablin also alleged Sickels instructed Lanahan to campaign door-to-door for Sickels' re-election bid; and that a former deputy town clerk, Linda Deprey, had been directed by Sickels to write letters to voters supporting Sickels' re-election bid.

The ethics committee sustained both allegations and recommended that Sickels be censured. The Town Board has 45 days to act on the request.